FATHER'S DAY PROMOTION DRIVES CAKE SALES

AMITY K. MOORE

RALEIGH, N.C. -- For the first time in its Raleigh-area stores, Winn-Dixie Stores here put the F-A-T into Father's Day with a promotion designed to drive bakery cake sales.

Children were invited to decorate heart-shaped cakes the day before Father's Day, using each stores' decorating equipment. The cakes were sold for $3.98 apiece.

An area in the bakery department was set aside so youngsters frosting and icing their cakes were visible to other shoppers, thus generating traffic in the area, said Paul Sabattus, marketing director at Winn-Dixie.

Once the kids completed customizing their cakes, they received a certificate of authenticity and Father's Day card to present to their respective dads along with the cake.

Both traditional format stores and Winn-Dixie Marketplace locations participated in the event, Sabattus said.

SN visited a Marketplace store in High Point, N.C., where an ad in the in-store flyer and point-of-sale materials drew attention to the promotion. A coupon for $1 off a quarter sheet Father's Day cake accompanied the ad.

Sabattus said Winn-Dixie promoted the event by way of radio spots and local newspapers, in addition to store circulars and POS materials.

He could not comment on the number of cake units sold as a result of the weekend event, but "the kids and the shoppers have a lot of fun. [The promotion] generates traffic in the bakery department," Sabattus said.

There are plans to run the promotion again next year in the Raleigh area. Before this year, Winn-Dixie organized the event in its Texas locations, he added.

Other departments benefited from the event as well because stores cross merchandised items such as men's cologne, gift wrap and bows, greeting cards and cake decorating paraphernalia in the bakery section, Sabattus said.